Kathmandu, Dec 05: The Nepal government has responded positively to the proposal of the Maoists to resolve the seven-year-long insurgency through dialogue.
''His Majesty's government will seriously study the legality and reliability of the Maoists' statement and take proper steps accordingly,'' minister for information and communications Ramesh Nath Pandey said.
The Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, said in a statement yesterday that the politburo meeting of the Maoists had formed a high level committee to hold dialogue with the government.
''The government's attention has been drawn to the Maoists' statement. The Prime Minister has made it clear repeatedly that the government wants every problem to be resolved peacefully, Pandey said.
The Maoists had held three round of talks with the government last year but the insurgents unilaterally broke the talks and resorted to violence.



The government declared the state of emergency to crush the insurgents and mobilised the Royal Nepal army for the first time. More than 4,000 insurgents were killed and hundreds arrested during nine months of the emergency period which lasted until late August this year.



The insurgents have been struggling in the Himalayan kingdom to establish a Communist style republic replacing the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy restored in 1990 through popular movement.



The insurgency has claimed more than 7,200 lives and damaged property worth millions of Rupees.


Bureau Report